Planning trip to London this Summer

People where I live (Crawley/Copthorne) commute all the time to London on a daily basis.

If it sounds like I'm trying to take a steaming poo on Gattaca's dream, that's not the case. It's just if he's looking for realism, and he's interested in potentially immigrating one day, weighing up the cost of living in or near London and pitting that against the national average wage is a good plan.

6 years ago the thought of living in Soho and renting a studio apartment really appealed. But in the end the ability to have a little personal space and extra money for happy activities won out. And that's real.

There's also http://www.shortstay-london.com/. You could possibly talk another couple into joining you and share the cost of the living space.

Oh, I know people commute - it is something I plan to do in the future.  But I would say that it is not a good idea when you first get here.  First of all is the cost, and that is the main thing.  It is okay if you are on £35k plus in the city, but if you are earning £20k or less it is just too pricey.

Secondly, commuting this way does restrict going out in the evening in London a little.  It is bad enough having to worry about getting your last train to Kingston or Epping, let alone Crawley or Brighton.

I've lived in Soho - it's great once you learn to sleep through the noise of the crack addicts arguing at 4 in the morning!

 

Vicky

Oh, I know people commute - it is something I plan to do in the future.  But I would say that it is not a good idea when you first get here.  First of all is the cost, and that is the main thing.  It is okay if you are on £35k plus in the city, but if you are earning £20k or less it is just too pricey.

Oh I completely agree. If it were me, I'd spend as much time in London and treat the month as a fabulous holiday. I just wanted to point out that if he is able to live and work in England, he may not end up in London at all.

I've lived in Soho - it's great once you learn to sleep through the noise of the crack addicts arguing at 4 in the morning!

 

Vicky
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Sadly, we contemplated having that lifestyle for a year. Traipsing through Chinatown and getting a meal at Special Zone 1997 at 3 'oclock in the morning, hearing drunks fighting in the street during the early hours of the morning. You know, a London experience!   

Ah, now 1997 was the BEST thing about living in Soho!  I loved that place.  Nothing like tucking into dinner in the early hours, overlooked my frames pics of Maggie Thatcher and Chairman Mao!

 

I'm so much happier out in the 'burbs!

Vicky

Oh I completely agree. If it were me, I'd spend as much time in London and treat the month as a fabulous holiday. I just wanted to point out that if he is able to live and work in England, he may not end up in London at all.

A month holiday in central London would be my nightmare.  Two weeks straight of wandering museums and parks would be plenty.

My favorite part of living in London is getting out of London and seeing the world. 

Well we definitely want to see a large chunk of southern England, but ideally we will live in London. We don't care how small of a place we live in, we will still be pretty young (23-24) and with both of our wages I feel comfortable based on all the research I've done, that's even if we are quite a bit below the average, which I've planned for. I'd like to see a lot of the smaller universities as I'll probably end up trying to get a Masters there and working toward the IGS. We'd probably end up living wherever I am going for the Masters, and then after IGS in the part of London that we can manage.

My fear with doing the hostel thing for a week is that we are staying for pretty much exactly a month. If we stay in a hostel for a week, who's going to rent for just 3 weeks? If so, it'd probably be more expensive (weekly) vs (monthly), right?

My favorite part of living in London is getting out of London and seeing the world. 

To me London is getting out and seeing the world, in fact it's the essence of getting out and seeing the world. I've lived in Phoenix my entire life, it's a bland, drive-everywhere, strip-mall infested, culturally deprived, Wal-mart infested hell hole!

Although if I won the lottery I'd probably live in London a year, Tokyo a year, Hong Kong a year, San Francisco a year, New York City a year, Sydney a year, Paris a year, Moscow a year and then settle in Bath and have children.

We don't care how small of a place we live in, we will still be pretty young (23-24)

You're probably going to be living in a very tiny (UK tiny, not US tiny) studio flat OR in a great big house where you rent a room among 8 other tenants doing the same.

Young or not, that situation is probably going to get old for you quickly. From the fellow tenants who come in pissed at night and pee in your wardrobe to the tenants who "borrow" some of your weekly food shop from the fridge.

Unless you have 10 siblings, and you shared a bedroom with two of them, living in any cramped conditions you're able to afford in the city is going to get irritating after a while.

The average age for an adult child to leave their parents' home in southern England at least is probably much higher than what you'd find in the US. I still know many 30-year-olds that live with their parents, as they have no significant other and they don't make enough money to get on the property ladder. So they live with their parents and wait....

Living further outside from the city means you get a little more bang for your buck. Just something to consider as well.

A month holiday in central London would be my nightmare.  Two weeks straight of wandering museums and parks would be plenty.

My favorite part of living in London is getting out of London and seeing the world. 

It wouldn't be ideal for me right now either, but when I was in my early 20's I certainly could imagine living in London for a year or two, much less a month.

I think that, when you come to move here, you will have no problems finding a decent house share.  I did it all through Uni and a couple of times after, and never had real problems.

Vicky

We live in a 3 bed Victorian terraced house in Kent - we could NEVER afford anything like this in London, regardless of the Zone, full stop.  My husband works from home and I work in London.  Granted, I pay over £3,000 per year on my annual season train + tube ticket.  But I'm also making £7,500 more per year this year than I could make "close to home". 

You have to weigh out what's important to you.  For us, it was owning our own home after 4 years of renting.  And as I'm the only one who has to worry about travel, it seemed a no-brainer.

I would much rather this commute - approximately 1.5 hours by train & tube/bus where I don't have to worry about the driving and can read or sleep or whatever - than the one I used to do in Florida, driving 45 minutes to up to three hours each way.  And, interestingly (or not!) I cook a "real" dinner 4 out of 5 nights when I get home, unlike my usual M.O. in Florida which was drive-thru meals 4 out of 5, as I couldn't be bothered to cook when I got in.

Again, it all depends on what you want to spend your money/time on.  We're 45 minutes away from Victoria if we want to come into London at the weekend, the times of the last trains haven't been a problem so far and we're close enough to the coastal towns for get-aways.

I think Gattaca just wants to experience the city life, and living closer to the center of everything is probably ideal, especially when you aren't working everyday.

I agree that being young gives a greater tolerance to otherwise unpleasant situations. I can't imagine backpacking through Europe now, though there was a time that sleeping in a train station was a big adventure. From his posts on this forum, he seems like someone who can deal with things in stride.

I understand about wanting to get out of strip mall/Wal-mart infested hell holes, as Dallas takes the cake. Of course, you don't have to go all the way to England to get away from it, but I can see the appeal.

I know that it's usually more comfortable to plan these things ahead of time, believe me, I am a HUGE planner, but from my experience as well as that of my friends, the best deals are usually last minute here.  I think if you start looking again a month before arrival you could do pretty well.  Possibly even better two weeks before.  I know it sounds crazy, but things move so quickly here!  Best of luck!

Unless you have 10 siblings, and you shared a bedroom with two of them, living in any cramped conditions you're able to afford in the city is going to get irritating after a while.

I have two siblings, but I shared a bedroom with both of them for 4 years . Two sisters, one younger, one older, both with separate menstrual cycles. I realize UK tiny is different than US tiny, but I've experienced the tiniest of tiny. Plus I'm not looking to live in the financial district. Don't you get at least a little more room in zones 3 and 4?

I love the city feel, but I also love the country/forest/wide open feel. Which is why I'll probably settle in that kind of environment when I have children and am older. If I love both the city and the country, what better way to experience both than do the city when young?

I understand about wanting to get out of strip mall/Wal-mart infested hell holes, as Dallas takes the cake. Of course, you don't have to go all the way to England to get away from it, but I can see the appeal.

Well it's more than simply an appeal and more than just about the strip mall infestation, but that's a whole other story of life and philosophy, politics and personality. I definitely don't plan on living in London forever, even if I was rich I wouldn't live there past my early 30's. I'm a balance kind of person, it's just that I can deal with that balance being over a long period of time, several years. Who knows though, maybe I will be living on the outskirts even while young.